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$90 for a cup of coffee: world’s most expensive blend is defecated from an animal

Coffee snobs can now take it to a whole new level. The world’s most expensive cup of coffee is made from beans that are extracted from the excrement of a small animal.

The Kopi Kuwak is famously produced by the Paradoxurus, a relative of three different breeds of civet, a slinky mammal that looks like a cross between a cat and a mongoose. The coffee blends originates on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is produced when the Paradoxurus eats coffee cherries, digests them and then the beans are extracted, cleaned and roasted.

Amazingly, a cup of Kopi Kuwak typically costs about $90. Or, you can pick up a pound of the beans for around $1,000. Just getting a cup of the coffee typically requires an appointment.

Is it the unusual and labor-intensive process that drives up the price? Or, is there something truly, well, unique about its taste?

The coffee website Funnel Mill describes the Kopi Kuwak process as, “The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavor with hints of caramel and chocolate. Other terms used to describe it are earthy, aromatic, sweet and exotic. The body is almost syrupy and it is probably the smoothest coffee known to mankind.”